Team Update: 12/18

Our resident engineers set me up with something called an "iPhone" (I thought about asking what a phone was and why this one has an eye, but questions like that just lead to headaches) and told me I can use it to post while I'm busy doing non-adventuring stuff. Personally I would've prefered if they'd built something to do my non-adventuring work for me, but I'll take what I can get.

Aside from that, everyone on the team's been busy in one form or another. Solannis is only 73, but he's been focusing on getting the jewelcrafting recipes from the vendor in Dalaran. He has taken a little break from that though to go try something incredibly reckless and stupid (pretty much the norm around here): he swam up the western coast of Icecrown to meet up with a priest friend of ours near a Scarlet Onslaught camp on an island. Their plan was for Sol to AoE down all of the Scarlets while the priest tossed him the occasional heal. As insane as this sounds, apparently it's quite efficient (and a decent amount of cloth for the priest) - Sol said it shouldn't be long before he's 74 at this rate.

Next up is our newest team member: Mordigg, the Tauren death knight. We haven't made quite as much progress as I would've liked due to other work that took precedence, but he did hit 70 last night. While he works on the rest, I'm gathering up the materials to make him a decent starter tanking set. If nothing else, he's got a Titansteel Destroyer waiting for him when he hits 80.

In the meantime, Mordigg has been gathering up plenty of herbs and leather. We still need to figure out what tradeskills he should switch to at 80, but for the moment it's giving the shaman the supplies he needs to level leatherworking and start making some tanking leg armor kits. As for the herbs, Sol's getting plenty of ink, but apparently Mr. Boomkin needs a bit more training before the alchemy trainers in Northrend will teach him any more. Not a high priority rightvnow, but I will have to light a fire under his feathered butt at some point.

As for me, it's been more of the same: do dailies, go dungeon diving, occasionally get called for an raid. I did get to go see Malygos the other day, but the group ran out of time before we could take him down. Shame though since the first two phases of the fight were going quite smoothly; it's just that "riding a drake" bit that was throwing them off. Oh well, hopefully they'll give me a heads-up next time they're going in, so I can write up another post about it.

I've been closing in one one of the items from my list of goals last month - Chef Ragar. I need three more achievements for the title: Dinner Impossible, Outland Gourmet, and Northrend Gourmet. Dinner Impossible I've been putting off because I hate the thought of wasting good food on people in battlegrounds (they're just gonna die anyways). For Outland Gourmet, the only recipe that I still need is Stormchops, then it's just a matter of gathering up ingredients. As for Northrend Gourmet, I've heard that the missing recipes are being tracked down, so it's just a matter of getting the last dozen or so cooking awards I need for the rest of the recipes.

I've got a few other ideas for future posts, but they either need: a) details, or b) to convince me that I'm not just stating the obvious. In the meantime, it's back to paperwork for me (why does the guy with an Intellect of 31 get stuck doing all of the team's bookwork?).

Planning for the Trip: Leveling & Specs

Took care of the rough profession planning yesterday, so now it's on to the more difficult job: getting the team from here to Icecrown with as few casualties as possible. I'll admit that I've only planned this out a bit in advance; with the size of our group, I've got some time to flesh out the rest of the plan.

I'll be leading the way into Northrend like I mentioned yesterday. "A real leader leads from the front," or some such nonsense. I think the guy that said that never had to pay plate repair bills. Regardless, I'll be blazing the trail and I'll be doing it protection-style. Any other spec would just feel awkward, plus the new tricks I picked up from the trainers should make this a bit smoother of a trip than previous adventures. I've had the chance to practice for a few weeks with everything, so I'm excited. I get to go see new places, meet new unhappy people/things with sharp pointy teeth, and Shockwave the daylights out of them.

After I've gone in and cleared a bit of a path, it'll be Solannis' turn, our resident healadin. Now here's where we've got a bit of a dilemma. On the one hand, Sol's been a healer for ages. It's what he's geared to do and it's what he knows best. On the other hand, he says he wants to try tanking. Personally I have no issues with this; I'm always one to welcome another tank to the fold and it would be nice to have his insight on paladin tanking for some pally vs. warrior tank discussion. The only issue I see is that his gear isn't exactly great for tanking. It should suffice for some early dungeon work, but it could definitely use some help. Guess I'll have to smith some more tanking plate while I train.

Third on the list is actually going to take some work on my part. Along with all of the news of Northrend, we've also heard about a group of the Lich King's death knights that have defected and are looking for a little payback against the big man himself. Assuming that this is the case, I'll be recruiting one of these death knights for the team. I'm sure some of the people on the team might take some objection to this, but honestly - we have a paladin who was originally trained to steal power from a Naaru and a warlock who's out of his damn mind. As long as people do their job and don't reflect poorly on the team's image now, I don't really care what your past looks like. I want someone who can give me another tanking perspective besides Sol's and my own, so we're getting one. Man, I'm gonna have to make a lot of plate...

Once the three of us have gotten settled in Northrend, then I'll have to figure out where we go from there. Do I push the warlock or the hunter so we've got a damage specialist available? Do I make Mr. Boomkin go bear so we've got all of the tanking bases covered? Do I let the shaman keep having fun zapping things or do I tell him to strap his healing gear back on? Or do I head back to Orgrimmar and tell the mage and priest to get off their asses and do some work?